Photography Lesson 1

Photography Simon 1^st February 2016

As part of our Beauty And The Brand project we are going to be taking photographs of our six final looks and therefore in photography we are going to be adding to our current knowledge of beauty photography so that we can take good quality beauty photographs.

There are several different types of lighting and lighting attachments that can be used in beauty photography and the main three that we will be using are; beauty dish, soft box and bounce lighting.

Beauty Dish:

When a beauty dish is used the light is very harsh and the lighting looks quite artificial but the light looks ‘clean’ as well and this makes is popular in beauty photography as the models features can be clearly seen yet dramatic shadows can be created if needed.

Soft Box:

When a soft box is used the light looks more natural than when a beauty dish is used because the light is softer. This is created because the soft box acts a diffuser and breaks up the light which makes it look softer. The bigger the soft box is the softer the light. This is like in nature when clouds act as diffusers to sunlight and so sunlight appears softer on cloudy days than when there are no clouds.
However the light source and diffuser are a lot further away from people than in the studio and therefore the light does not look completely natural.

Bounce Lighting:

When this type of lighting is used well it can look very similar to natural light because the lighting is very soft. Bounce lighting is created by pointing the camera away from the model towards something that can reflect the light such as a white wall. The light then bounces off the wall and lights the model, hence the name bounce lighting. If there is not a wall/corner in the correct place then a corner can be created using two white polyboards.

Flash metres are used in beauty photography to test the power of the light and therefore how bright it will be. They are connected to the flash head by using a sync lead. In order to take a reading hold the flash metre in line with where the model’s head will be in the photograph and press the button on the side of the flash metre. It will give you the light reading as an aperture so that you can set the camera on the same aperture so that the exposer of the photographs will be good. On the flash metre there are four modes, two that are sun and two that are flash. For our beauty images we will be using flash with C which stands for cable or cord. The mode can be changed by using the purple mode button. In order to change the ISO of the flash metre hold the ISO button and use the arrow buttons, for our photographs we will be using ISO 100. The white button at the top of the flash metre needs to be closed when we are using it so that it takes an accurate reading of the light and not anything else. In order to change the aperture turn the brightness of the flash tube up or down

The aperture determines how big the whole in the lense is and therefore how much light can go
through. The different apertures result in different areas of the photograph being in focus. In our beauty photographs it will be ideal if the background in not in focus so that the background is just one plain colour and does not look like paper. If it was in focus then the viewer would be able to see any texture or marks on the background and so the photographs would not look as professional. The higher the aperture the more likely the background is to be in focus therefore an aperture of 5.6 would be more ideal than an aperture of 11 for beauty photography.

On the flash metre if the number of the aperture is followed by another number in smaller writing or a series of dots then it means the aperture is between to apertures and so you may have an aperture of 5.6 that is still too bright if it is followed by dots and so you may still want to turn the brightness of the flash tube down.

Catch Light:

This is the light that can be seen reflecting from the model’s eyes when a photograph is taken. When a beauty dish has been used the light is a circular shape, when a soft box has been used the light is a square shape and the light does not look as strong and when bounce lighting is used the light is large and rectangular in shape and not as strong as a beauty dish.

When taking photographs make sure the light is at a good height and not too low unless this is the look you want otherwise the photographs will look a bit strange as we are used to seeing people in natural light where the sun is above them. Also make sure you are not stood in front of the light and therefore blocking it.

If the photographs have a tint to them such as blue then the white balance is probably wrong. The white balance puts a filter on the images to stop this from happening and the easiest thing to do is to put it on automatic using the WB button on the camera. The focus can also be put on automatic to make taking photographs easier and the shutter speed should be 1/160.

Reflectors can be used to change the harshness of shadows. Silver is the most reflective and will decrease the amount of shadow the most, white will also reflect the light but not as much as silver and black will absorb the light and therefore increase the amount of shadows.

Things to remember when setting up equipment:

Make sure that when you are setting up a light stand that the base of the stand is flat. This makes it as stable as possible are therefore is less likely to move or fall over.

When setting up a flash head make sure that you remove the black cap which is over the light before you turn the flash head on so that the heat from the bulb does not melt the cap.

Also make sure the flash head is the correct way round so that the writing is the right way up and therefore the writing is easier to read and it is easier to make sure the settings are how you want them.

The flash tube on the flash head is what lights up the model but it only lights up as the flash when the photograph is taken and that is why there is a light bulb also called a modelling lamp so that you can see where the light will fall on the model when the photograph is taken.

On the flash head there are two dials, one that controls the brightness of the flash tube which is usually called power and one that controls the brightness of the modelling lamp which is usually called lamp.

On the back of the flash head there is a cell button. This can be turned off if you do not want the flash to be set off when other people nearby are taking photographs. However if you are using more than one light yourself and you want them to flash at the same time then turn the cell button off on the main flash head which is the one attached to the camera but turn on the cell button on the other flash heads you are using. Sometimes instead of saying cell the cell button has a picture on an eye on it instead.
We worked in groups in order to take some photographs concentrating on getting the correct aperture and using reflectors.

The aperture on the two images above was slightly wrong. We were aiming for 5.6 but ours was slightly higher and so the exposure on the photographs is incorrect.

 On the two images above the aperture is correct at 5.6.

On the two images above the aperture was still 5.6 however we used a reflector aimed under the chin so there was less shadow under the chin and on the face.